The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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factor in. "It's a huge advantage, and not only that, it's your head coach, who is in- volved in play calling. For him to be out there coaching these quarterbacks, it's a huge advantage. We'll see that in the development of these quarterbacks as they come through over the years at Michigan." The Wolverine: Do you see this of- fense as conservative, more gambling at times, or how might you define it in those terms? Skene: "That's going to be depen- dent upon personnel and the current state of this offense, in whatever week you're talking about. We've got to see who can develop as ball carriers and ball catchers, and who is going to de- liver that football. "I don't think there is going to be one standard policy that Coach Harbaugh or his offensive assistants develop and adopt as a standalone, 'Oh, we're al- ways going to go for it in this situa- tion.' Coaches base those decisions on feel, how their offense is playing and certainly how their defense is playing, as to how much they want to gamble on the offensive side of the ball. "Depending upon how fast the play- makers rise to the top in this offense, and how good his defense plays, that will determine how risky he gets in terms of play-calling decisions." The Wolverine: Greg Mattison is back, coaching Michigan's linebackers. Talk a little about what you expect from the U-M defense going forward. Skene: "Harbaugh defenses are pro style, 4-3 front, attacking, a lot like Coach Mattison. Personally, I'm really happy to hear that Coach Mattison will be staying on. I know he's an outstand- ing football coach, a great recruiter, and the players who play for him re- ally love him. I've seen that over the years from the guys who have played for him, all the way back to guys I played with. "I would expect an aggressive de- fense. I don't think they're going to go out and recruit a different style of kids. You've got to have big, strong, athletic defensive linemen, and we've done a good job of bringing them in. They just need to continue to develop in their physical skills. "And you've got to have lineback- ers who can run like safeties, to cover these spread offenses that you see now. Again, how aggressive he can get will all depend, initially, on how good his defensive line is at getting to the quar- terback. "If he has a pass rusher or two that can get to the quarterback and cause problems, that opens up so many op- tions having to do with your second- ary and second-level defenders, as far as blitz packages, zone blitzes. You can do so many different things when you have a defense that can get home by themselves. "You're going to see an aggressive defense. How much risk and how much blitzing they're going to do, I can't tell you. It all starts with that front four." The Wolverine: Last year's defense had a stated goal of playing more man- to-man coverage, but had to back off some when they weren't doing it that well. Any thoughts as to what you might see going forward? Skene: "It all starts and ends with